


Teen Romance, Or Some Junk

by wookieefucker



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Other, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, nonbinary bucky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-23
Updated: 2015-04-23
Packaged: 2018-03-25 09:32:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3805456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wookieefucker/pseuds/wookieefucker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bucky is smitten and jealous. Natasha thinks it's hilarious. Bucky's mom is really cool.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Teen Romance, Or Some Junk

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this a while ago for my ex when we were still dating. I kind of hate them lmao but whatever this is still a great fic. I'm rededicating it to my pal Thierry. I'm the author, I'm allowed to do that.

Steve was small. Like, this was not a fact that could be avoided. There was no nice way to phrase this. The dude was tiny. And he apparently had a death wish. Bucky sighed as they sat down at their usual lunch table and waited for Nat to come over. She was dragging some kid named Clint around lately, and so he sat with them as well. Bucky snorted as they watched him stop looking at Nat when she spoke and just start nodding as he focused on his food. This guy would either be gone quick or last forever.

Anyway, they glanced back over at Steve and rolled their eyes as they saw someone trip him as he walked past their table. Of course. Of fucking course it would be that douchebag Tony, of course. And like, the thing was, Stark didn’t really have mean intentions. He just liked to poke people until they poked back, and when things got too messy his daddy’s money made everything go away. The only people to stick by him were that Potts chick and the Banner kid. Bruce. He was some sort of genius, and he and Tony were in some geek thing together. Bucky liked Bruce, he was a nice kid. Really brought the term ‘gentle giant’ to mind.

So Tony tripped Steve and thank God he didn’t make him fall and spill his tray because then Bucky would have been pissed and Steve would have been confused and Nat would have laughed at this hopeless crush and yeah – they were just gonna let Steve ream the shit out of Tony and try not to get hard. Not like that happened when Steve got passionate about something. Nat gave them a look like she knew exactly what they were thinking and they groaned and slumped forward, and let their head bang against the table.

Steve came to the table around ten minutes later, just as Bucky was finishing up scarfing down their food, and slammed his tray down. They glanced over and tried not to laugh; Stark was honest to God blushing and Banner was trying not to laugh. Pepper – that was her name, fuck – was laughing full tilt with her head thrown back and her mouth open. She was actually really pretty, Bucky thought. They wondered if Stark was messing with her or Bruce. Rumor said both, but you know how rumors are in high school.

Steve was bristling with righteous fury and Nat kept kicking Bucky under the table and wiggling her eyebrows and Clint was just smiling and picking at the weird gray stuff that the school called meatloaf. Bucky sighed and looked over at Steve’s tray before setting their unopened milk on it next to his and snagging Steve’s open applesauce. The kid hated applesauce but he kept grabbing it and opening it, so Bucky kept stealing it. They loved that shit, but it’s something that is a bit hard to open one handed.

When they were little, right after his dad had left, Bucky and their mom had been in the car and some asshole drunk driver had T-boned them at a stoplight. Their mom and the drunk had both been fine, but Bucky had to have their left arm removed above the elbow. Doctor’s kept pushing them to use a prosthetic, and sometimes they did, but Bucky honestly just liked going without. It was one more thing to keep most people away. It hadn’t worked on Nat or Steve, thank God; Bucky didn’t know what they would do without those two in their life. They were weird and out on the fringes of society just like Bucky, but together they put together their own little group of broken kids from broken homes.

Finally, they elbowed Steve and tried not to wince at how bony he felt. “I’ll give him an extra bone” floated through their mind before Bucky tamped down on that and grimaced. Even in their mind the jokes were fucking awful.

“Hey, punk, what did you get on number seven on the algebra homework? Because I got x = 7 but I’m pretty sure that’s not right because Bruce kept leaning over and sighing really loudly last period when I was working on it.”

The question did the trick and Steve started chatting about math and how to do factorials and got less tense as time went by. Stark and his issues flew right out of his head, and as the lunch period went on Steve relaxed more and more so that he was leaning against Bucky’s side, and when the bell rang they sighed. This was as close to being in a dating relationship with Steve that they were going to get, and the lunch period always went by way too fast.

Bucky’s room was a fucking mess. Usually that wasn’t a problem because nobody but them came in but noooo Steve was coming over tomorrow and he was bringing some new/old friend named Sam. Apparently they had been neighbors as kids but then Steve’s dad died and they moved off the military base and Steve lost contact. Then Sam had moved to town with a broken, widowed mother and a box with a purple heart and “wouldn’t you know it, Bucky, he moved in right in our neighborhood!”

So of course Bucky had invited Steve to bring him over because Bucky couldn’t deny him anything and now they were staring at the filthy floor and unmade bed and old dishes stacked into a leaning tower of bacterial growth and what the hell were they thinking? Well, they were thinking that their long hair and one arm and smudged eyeliner and black jacket with a fucking pentagram on the back might be a bit much for Steve’s army brat friend and they didn’t actually want to scare this guy away – they liked Steve too much for that. So a clean room would help balance everything out, right?

A slight knock on the doorframe made Bucky look up, and their mom, Winifred, was at the door smiling with a basket of clean laundry perched on her hip. Bucky had her eyes; deep and brooding, yet warm and full of life.  

“Need anything?” she asked sweetly as she tucked a loose curl behind her ear with one hand and shifted the basket. Bucky just dropped onto their bed and buried their face in the pillow and groaned. Their mom frowned and set down the laundry, stepping over a pile of clothing on Bucky’s floor and settling next to them on the bed. She patted their hip comfortingly before smoothing their hair back.

“What’s wrong, baby?”

A jumble of indeterminate mumbles came from the pillow.

“What was that?” She patted their back and then Bucky sat up and frowned.

“I said, Steve has some new friend and the sun basically shines out of his ass.”

“Language, James,” she chided gently. Bucky grinned crookedly at her.

“I said that he could bring him over tomorrow morning for cartoons and homework.” Bucky groaned, pushing their hair back roughly, and then dragging their fingers through it. It was getting really long now. Maybe it was time to start thinking about hair ties. Possibly a bow-

“What’s the problem? What’s his name? Do you not like him?”

Frustrated, Bucky sighed, “It’s not that. His name is Sam. I don’t even know him. But Steve seems to love him.” Their mom smiled knowingly and stood up, placing a kiss on their head.

“So your problem is that you think Steve loves him and not you,” she said, hitting the nail on the head. Bucky groaned loudly and flung themself back onto the bed, burying their face in the pillow again. Their mom continued, “Well, let me get this put away and I’ll help you clean your room. If he’s important to Steve you’ll want to make a good impression.”

When she left, Bucky grabbed their phone and called Natasha, who texted Clint, and they both came over. When Bucky thanked them profusely Nat finally said enough and told them that it was either this or the football game and that she fully expected to be paid with dinner and any odds and ends that they wanted to get rid of that she found interesting. Clint just shrugged and said he was here because Nat had threatened to withhold sex.

When Bucky signed back ‘thank you’ at him Clint looked pleasantly surprised and they had a sort of conversation with Bucky using the ASL that they had picked up while watching Switched at Birth with their sister, not that they would ever admit to that. Clint even had a lot to tell them about how they could sign using just the right arm and still conform to norms of Deaf culture, if that was something that Bucky would be interested in. They ended up agreeing to go to some meetings at the Deaf School and Cultural Center with Clint on Sundays.

Bucky’s mom came back in and hugged Nat and smiled at Clint before introducing herself and politely asking him his preferred pronouns. Clint, to his credit, wasn’t even startled. Bucky thought he’d definitely be around a while. They wiggled their eyebrows at Nat and she rolled her eyes, but a small smile pulled at the corners of her mouth. She flopped down onto Bucky’s bed and started putting selfies on her snapchat story. Bucky leaped at her and wrestled for her phone, shouting about Steve seeing what they were doing and wanting it to be a surprise. Clint snorted and sat backwards at Bucky’s desk chair before looking around.

After a quick vote on dinner, Bucky was kicked out to go get Chinese food and Winifred and Natasha started working on pulling all of the laundry out of the room. Bucky complained about it being their room, but Clint just handed them the money and shoved them outside, saying that if they had stuck around nothing would have gotten done, and then firmly shut the door.

Bucky had come back to find that all of the laundry was removed from their room and Nat and his mom were disgusted with the amount of food and dishes to be found everywhere. They handed Bucky their prosthesis and sent them to the kitchen to work on cleaning said dishes, and Clint began carrying boxes to the garage. When they tried to enquire about the contents, he gave Bucky cagey answers about yard sales and kept walking. Finally Bucky shrugged. Nat and their mom weren’t evil; neither of them would get rid of anything that they really loved.

Several hours, dozens of boxes, and a lot of hard work later, and Nat had a bag full of junk to take with her, Clint was sporting some funky pink wayfarers, and Bucky had a clean room. Legitimately clean. They didn’t think it had ever been this clean. Winifred hugged them and then wrinkled her nose before smacking their butt and saying, “Shower!” in a commanding tone. Bucky rolled their eyes and went to bathe in their mom’s shower. Clint and Natasha disappeared into the hall bathroom together and Winifred just raised her eyebrows before moving on. When the shower started and neither of them came out she just went to switch Bucky’s clothes into the dryer.

Nat and Clint had spent the night, and all three of them had crashed on Bucky’s newly made bed together. When the sun came up on Saturday morning they stumbled downstairs to find Bucky’s mom smoking on the back porch and she smiled at them. Bucky directed them all to the cereal and then they dazedly wandered into the living room to turn on cartoons. When they finished eating they dozed until the door opened, and Bucky blearily opened their eyes to see Steve and someone that he supposed was Sam standing above them. They catalogued everything quickly, noting the distance between him and Steve, especially. Bucky tumbled off the couch and said, “Hey man,” as they walked, hip checking Steve on the way to dump their bowl in the sink. Sam greeted them with a “hey” and a nod.

When Natasha slyly suggested that they move to Bucky’s room Steve’s eyes got really wide, but he was swept along as Sam, who of course was oblivious, started chatting with Clint and Nat just pulled him along. Steve’s eyes almost flew out of his skull when he walked into Bucky’s clean room, and he blurted out, “Damn, I don’t think I’ve ever seen your floor, Buck!”

Bucky flushed red and mumbled about it being time to get organized, and Sam looked back and forth between the two of them like he was trying to figure out a particularly difficult puzzle. Bucky just sat down cross-legged on the far corner of their bed and pulled out their phone, trying to look cool. The result was more or less what they had hoped for.

Steve settled on the bed next to Bucky and pulled out his AP History textbook, while Bucky started working on math. Clint and Nat sat in the corner as he started teaching her sign language, with him in the desk chair and her on the desk, and Sam sat next to Steve with his legs stretched out. They worked in silence for a while, and then Winifred brought up snacks and Steve picked up the remote and turned Bucky’s tv on and they laid their head in Steve’s lap and watched a repeat of Mean Girls. Honestly, on Saturdays it was a toss up between that or Harry Potter being on tv and usually both were. Eventually Sam had to be home for lunch, and Nat wanted to hit the mall, so she offered to drive him. Clint followed her out, pulling weird faces, but still trailing after her. Their dynamic seemed strange at first, but the more time Bucky spent around Clint, the more they were starting to understand it.

“You spending the night?” Bucky asked sleepily as Steve kept playing with their hair. Steve smiled and traced a finger over their eyelids.

“You look softer without your eyeliner,” he said without answering. Bucky squinted up at him and pouted until Steve smiled.

“I’ll call my mom and ask,” he replied, and Bucky grinned and settled back into their previous position and fell asleep. They woke up to their mom asking Steve what he wanted for dinner and groggily sat up, rubbing the sleep out of their eyes and yawning. After snatching Steve’s phone from the bed and checking the time, which was 2:30, Bucky rolled out of bed and stood up, stretching. Their back popped and they twisted a couple of times, stomach exposed and hands skyward.

Winifred came in and kissed them on the head and smoothing their hair down where it was ratted up in the back. She smiled at Steve as she left, and told them both to yell if they needed anything. Steve smiled charmingly and said ‘thank you, ma’am,’ and she laughed and told him to call her Winifred, as if she hadn’t been having this discussion with him since he was a precocious 7 year old that had moved in down the street.

After she left the room it got quiet, and it wasn’t the kind of silence that normally accompanied them. It wasn’t soft and easy, it was hard and strained, and Bucky was grasping for something to say. Steve beat them to it.

“Is there something going on with you? Are you dying?” He looked embarrassed to have blurted it out, and before Bucky could say anything, he continued, “I mean you cleaned your room. I don’t think you’ve ever cleaned your room. At all. In any of the time that I’ve known you.” Bucky dragged their fingers through their hair, sighing and scrunching up their face.

“I’m not dying, you goober,” they replied, smiling at Steve’s semi relieved look. “I just. I. Ok look I need to tell you something ok? I need you to be really quiet and hush because this is big and it has the potential to ruin our friendship and that is literally the last thing that I want in this world.”

“Hey, I was fine when you told me you were trans. You accepted me when I told you I was bi. Nothing shakes us, that’s just how we are. I’ll follow you anywhere.” Bucky smiled, and shook their head.

“Just promise you’ll listen and not say anything while I get this out?” Steve nodded, and Bucky took a deep breath. “Ok. So I’ve known you for basically forever. You’re the most important person in my life, and I love you. You’re my best friend and I didn’t want to ruin anything but I swear to God like five years ago I realized that like, yeah, I loved you, you’re my friend, but also I’m in love with you. You pretty much hung the moon in my book. I don’t know how you didn’t see it, or maybe if you did and were just trying to be polite because you didn’t want to upset the status quo and lose my friendship but I swear I won’t stop being your friend no matter what your decision is, unless you want me to. But I have strong feelings for you. Romantic feelings. And I’d really like to date you.” Bucky panted the last bit out and gasped before taking a couple of deep breaths. They hadn’t really breathed through that speech.

Bucky pushed their hair up and over the top of their head, running their fingers through it and sighing. They’d fucked it up. Shit. They were rapidly pacing back and forth and Steve hadn’t said anything and he was probably going to just go running away and-

“Are you finished?” Steve asked softly. It was the kind of softness that usually got associated with injured animals that you didn’t want to frighten. Bucky stopped pacing and stared at him, eyes wide, almost too afraid to breathe. Steve’s smile was soft and kind though, and he just patted the bed next to him.

“Come sit down so I don’t feel so short during this talk, please.” Bucky laughed a little, because honestly, Steve was tiny and sitting next to him wouldn’t change that too much. God they hoped Steve let them down gently. “Hey. Can you look at me?” Bucky shook their head no, and Steve nodded. “Ok, that’s fine. You can just listen.

“Bucky I’ve loved you since the day I met you. We moved in and the kids next door kept trying to sic their Rottweiler on me and you sprinted down the street with a plastic rifle tied to your left arm and holding a shovel in your right hand and chased them away. How could I not? You’re my best friend and I didn’t think you’d ever look twice at someone like me. I mean look at you!”

Bucky looked up with astonishment clearly written across their face and Steve just looked down at his lap.

“Bucky… you’re everything.” Bucky turned so that they were sitting cross-legged facing Steve and leaned in close, putting a hand on Steve’s knee.

“Hey.” Steve didn’t look up. “I’m really glad you told me that because it’s going to make this next part really a whole lot better.” Steve looked at them quizzically and Bucky grinned at him, all crooked and endearing, and said, “Well I’d like to kiss you now if that’s ok.” Steve’s eyes widened and he just sat there for a second before nodding and stammering out an ok.

Bucky was stilling grinning when they leaned forward even more and kissed their best friend. It felt like a kiss is supposed to feel, they imagined. It wasn’t like in the movies, when fireworks go off and your mind goes blank. Nah, Bucky was slightly worried about how their breath smelled and their lips were tingling a bit, so that was cool, and oh man Steve just tilted his head fuck I’m actually kissing Steve and that’s about the time their brain short circuited. Actually connecting the action of kissing to the thoughts of it being Steve was all that it took to make them stop thinking.

Steve leaned back and inhaled deep and Bucky reached for his inhaler out of instinct. Jesus, it would be just their luck that their first kiss would give Steve an asthma attack. Thankfully he didn’t need it, although about a hundred different puns about ‘taking your breath away’ were running through Bucky’s mind right then and they were a bit peeved at the lack of a chance to use them.

Bucky grinned at Steve and he blushed bright red and buried his face in his hands.

“You just kissed me.”

“Yep.”

“I kissed you back.”

“Sure as hell did.”

His hands muffled his words, “Did you like it?”

Bucky still understood. “Yep.”

“Oh.”

“Yep.”

“That’s good then.”

Bucky smiled and flopped backwards on their bed, right arm stretched out towards the edge and the rest of their room. “Get over here you dweeb,” they said, and Steve clambered over them and settled next to Bucky. They pulled their arm over and pulled Steve close.

“Are we going to talk about what this means?” he asked. Bucky nodded and smiled softly before turning so that they were facing Steve, their arm still underneath his head, and Steve scooted in a little closer.

“After we nap, though,” they told him sleepily, and as they started to doze off, Steve smiled and kissed them quickly before closing his eyes and drifting off to sleep as well.

That night at dinner was intense and kind of awkward and yet still perfect. Bucky just knew that their mom knew something had changed, and that they would, of course, be talking about it when Steve left. That meant that Bucky had to talk to Steve and figure out just what ‘it’ was.

Steve spent the night and they talked for several hours about how they both felt, trying to be honest and as up front as they could about the way things were and what boundaries the two of them had. It wasn’t really uncomfortable though. It just felt like the natural course that their relationship was supposed to run. They fell asleep that night in Bucky’s bed curled up together. They had fallen asleep holding each other and talking, and when Winifred came by to tell them ‘lights out’ she smiled and turned out the light. She was happy for her child. Bucky hadn’t had an easy life, and she just wanted something good for them. Steve would be good for them.

On Sunday Steve went home, and Winifred grilled Bucky on everything that had happened, smiling and cooing over everything they said, and smiling when they asked if she would please braid their hair. It was one of those things that they only did together when big changes happened in their lives. Bucky texted Nat and Clint and Clint sent back a standard ‘congrats’, but with a winky face emoji. Nat sent back a picture of a “tfw no gf” meme with the ‘no’ crossed out and a ‘b’ written over the ‘g’. Winifred asked why they were laughing and they had to spend three hours explaining memes to her. All in all it wasn’t a bad afternoon.

When Monday morning came around Bucky met Steve and Sam at the bus stop. They weren’t sure how Sam was about queer people, but Steve reached over and grabbed their hand to hold and Bucky figured everything was ok. They leaned over and kissed Steve once, just because, and it was really worth it when he blushed and looked at the ground. Sam just laughed at them, and then the bus showed up.

Not a lot changed at school, because let’s be honest, they were on the fringe of society. Even if anyone cared that they were dating, they wouldn’t say anything. And it’s not like anyone here could get away with being queerphobic, what with Stark fucking over half of the student body, even the ones who proclaimed their straightness for all to hear.

Nat teased them both on a regular basis, and Clint and Sam became permanent fixtures in their little family. Things worked out, life moved on, and Steve was still their best friend. Just now, more kisses were involved. It wasn’t like life could really get any better anyway – I mean come on, they were 16. What more could life have to offer right now anyway?


End file.
